Staff profile

Lab website

insectneurolab.com

Lena obtained her PhD in 2009 from the University of Sussex, studying insect visual navigation. She later was a postdoctoral fellow at UCL, Johns Hopkins University and Imperial College, and a Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow at Manchester University. Lena's postdoctoral research focussed on: 1) the co-evolution of courtship songs and hearing in Drosophila; 2) the development of genetic tools for insects, including non-model organisms (mosquitoes); and 3) insect olfaction. Lena joined Durham Biosciences as an Assistant Professor in 2019 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2023. Lena's group (the InsectNeuroLab) is working on genetic tool development, insect sensory neuroscience and sensory ecology, with a specific focus on Drosophila, mosquitoes, bumblebees and Black Soldier Flies. Please see insectneurolab.com for more details.

• Black soldier flies
• mosquitoes
• Drosophila
• bumblebees
• development of genetic tools
• sensory neuroscience
• neuroethology
• olfaction
• sensory ecology

Chapter in book

• Fölsz, O., Lin, C.-C., Task, D., Riabinina, O., & Potter, C. J. (2022). The Q-system: A Versatile Repressible Binary Expression System. In Drosophila: Methods and Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-2541-5_2
• Riabinina, O., & Potter, C. (2016). The Q-System: A Versatile Expression System for Drosophila. In Drosophila. Methods in Molecular Biology. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-6371-3_3

Journal Article

• Riabinina, O., Quinn, M., & Whitehead, J. (online). Genetic Toolbox Approaches in Mosquitoes. https://doi.org/10.1101/pdb.top107691
• Wheelwright, M., Whittle, C., & Riabinina, O. (in press). Olfactory systems across mosquito species. Cell and Tissue Research, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00441-020-03407-2
• Gomez Ramirez, W. C., Thomas, N. K., Muktar, I. J., & Riabinina, O. (2023). The neuroecology of olfaction in bees. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 56, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2023.101018
• Langridge, K. V., Wilke, C., Riabinina, O., Vorobyev, M., & Hempel de Ibarra, N. (2021). Approach Direction Prior to Landing Explains Patterns of Colour Learning in Bees. Frontiers in Physiology, 12, Article 697886. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.697886
• Redhai, S., Pilgrim, C., Gaspar, P., Giesen, L. V., Lopes, T., Riabinina, O., Grenier, T., Milona, A., Chanana, B., Swadling, J., Wang, Y.-F., Dahalan, F., Yuan, M., Wilsch-Brauninger, M., Lin, W.-H., Dennison, N., Capriotti, P., Lawniczak, M., Baines, R., Warnecke, T., …Miguel-Aliaga, I. (2020). An intestinal zinc sensor regulates food intake and developmental growth. Nature, 580(7802), 263-268. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2111-5
• Mansourian, S., Fandino, R., & Riabinina, O. (2019). Progress in the use of genetic methods to study insect behavior outside Drosophila. Current Opinion in Insect Science, 36, 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cois.2019.08.001
• Afify, A., Betz, J., Riabinina, O., Lahondere, C., & Potter, C. (2019). Commonly Used Insect Repellents Hide Human Odors from Anopheles Mosquitoes. Current Biology, 29(21), 3669-3680. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2019.09.007
• Riabinina, O., Vernon, S., Dickson, B., & Baines, R. (2019). Split-QF System for Fine-Tuned Transgene Expression in Drosophila. Genetics, 212(1), 53-63. https://doi.org/10.1534/genetics.119.302034
• Riabinina, O., Task, D., Marr, E., Lin, C.-C., Alford, R., O'Brochta, D., & Potter, C. (2016). Organization of olfactory centres in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae. Nature Communications, 7(1), Article 13010. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13010
• Lin, C.-C., Riabinina, O., & Potter, C. (2016). Olfactory Behaviors Assayed by Computer Tracking Of Drosophila in a Four-quadrant Olfactometer. Journal of Visualized Experiments, Article e54346. https://doi.org/10.3791/54346
• Gao, X., Riabinina, O., Li, J., Potter, C., Clandinin, T., & Luo, L. (2015). A transcriptional reporter of intracellular Ca2+ in Drosophila. Nature Neuroscience, 18(6), 917-925. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.4016
• Riabinina, O., Luginbuhl, D., Marr, E., Liu, S., Wu, M., Luo, L., & Potter, C. (2015). Improved and expanded Q-system reagents for genetic manipulations. Nature Methods, 12(3), 219-222. https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3250
• Riabinina, O., de Ibarra, N., Philippides, A., & Collett, T. (2014). Head movements and the optic flow generated during the learning flights of bumblebees. Journal of Experimental Biology, 217(15), 2633-2642. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.102897
• Philippides, A., de Ibarra, N., Riabinina, O., & Collett, T. (2013). Bumblebee calligraphy: the design and control of flight motifs in the learning and return flights of Bombus terrestris. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(6), 1093–1104. https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.081455
• Collett, T., de Ibarra, N., Riabinina, O., & Philippides, A. (2013). Coordinating compass-based and nest-based flight directions during bumblebee learning and return flights. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(6), https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.081463
• Riabinina, O., de Ibarra, N., Howard, L., & Collett, T. (2011). Do wood ants learn sequences of visual stimuli?. Journal of Experimental Biology, 214(16), https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.058537
• Riabinina, O., Dai, M., Duke, T., & Albert, J. (2011). Active Process Mediates Species-Specific Tuning of Drosophila Ears. Current Biology, 21(8), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2011.03.001
• de Ibarra, N., Philippides, A., Riabinina, O., & Collett, T. (2009). Preferred viewing directions of bumblebees (Bombus terrestris L.) when learning and approaching their nest site. Journal of Experimental Biology, 212(20), https://doi.org/10.1242/jeb.029751
• Riabinina, O., & Philippides, A. (2009). A model of visual detection of angular speed for bees. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 257(1), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtbi.2008.11.002